Video Game Review: Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (360)

I have never liked the Call of Duty series. I played the first one on the PC and was not very impressed with it. It wasn’t until I spent an entire weekend playing Call of Duty 2 on my 360 (and I mean the whole weekend, no food or sleep) that I truly hated the series. Those were the most frustrating 1000 gamer points I’ve ever gotten, aside from CoD4. So despite hating the series I decided to give CoD4 a go since people were telling me it wasn’t like the others… a whopper of a lie.

It’s funny because I hated the game prior to it’s release, after all the acclaim it got, while I put the disk on the tray, and while I was playing it. CoD4 is just like its predecessors. Sure, it takes place in some fictional modern day event instead of WWII, but that is where the differences stop. It still has the same monotonous game play, and frustrating controls. I’ll try to focus on the problems with CoD4 but I may start complaining about the series in general, it can’t be helped.

One of my largest frustrations while playing CoD4 is the fact that your squad mates are completely and utterly useless. Unless you jump right into the fray and push forward yourself your team will just sit back, pop out of cover every once and a while, shoot at nothing, and then go for cover again. This is particularly annoying when you’re playing in veteran mode and going out in the open gets you killed almost instantly. I really loved it when an enemy is chasing you so you run back to where your guys are only to have the enemy run right past them and shoot you. Thanks guys, thanks for shooting the AK-47 wielding Russian who ran right through our barricade, oh wait, you didn’t, that’s why I’m DEAD.

Another frustration is the inability to pop out of cover or lean around walls to shoot at an enemy, such as in Rainbow Six: Vegas or Gears of War. Quite often you’ll come up to a point where you have to have your sights aimed at the corner of a wall and slowly creep out into the open until you can see the enemy’s arm or leg so you can shoot them before they blow the crap out of you. How is it possible that this is the fourth iteration of this series and they have yet to implement even a rudimentary cover system?

This reminds me of another point. Why is it that the enemies in this game all take preference in this game to shoot at you despite how many of your team mates are out in the open and much easier targets? Say you’re hidden behind a box and you start to inch out so you can get a clear shot of an enemy. As soon as you’re barely out every enemy on screen will be shooting and throwing grenades your way even though there may be guys on your team out in the open. Yea, way to immerse me in the battlefield by having the computer enemies single me out all the time. God damn it, even if you’re standing behind a whole group of guys walking forward the computer will pick you off. You’re not even the ranking officer!

Also how are the computer opponents so quick to respond to everything. You can run around a corner guns blazing and they respond immediately. If these were actual people they would take a moment to take aim and pull the trigger. The whole series is supposed to be prided on being somewhat realistic. The enemy doesn’t even respond to cover fire, they’ll walk right into your bullets. The creators sure lied when they said they were making improvements to their game.

And then there’s the same boring objectives that have been plaguing CoD since day one. Defend your position until reinforcements arrive in (add time here). Use C4 to blow up the (add vehicle here). Use machine gun en-placement to defend position. Although my favorite has the be just to continue pushing forward. The only difference between the levels is the map, everything else is the same boring objectives over and over again.

This part really only applies to me but its pissing me off. So I spent hours of my life playing this game only to get 980/1000 Gamerpoints because the “Mile High Club” achievement is so freaking hard that I don’t even want to bother trying for it. You’re supposed to get from one side of an airplane filled with terrorists to the staircase on the other side so that you can trek all the way to the other side of the plane to reach a hostage whose captor you have to head shot… all within 60 seconds. It’s hard enough to play the game in veteran with the 360 controller, this is just asking the insane out of the player.

I guess I’ll say a couple good things about the game because it does have some redeeming qualities. The storyline was rather enjoyable, although anything would be good after having WWII crammed down our throats three times in a row. Also, the graphics are terrific. The only thing next gen about this game is the graphics, like a hobo with a nice suit. It pains me to say that this is the best game in its series which is like saying its the least insane person in an asylum.

If you’re interested in this game despite what I’ve said, and also want to support this blog, you can buy it from Amazon through us.